


The Art of Changing

by Leisey



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien stumbles across his miraculous, F/M, Fastest reveal in the history of reveals, I don't even know what to call this AU, Identity Reveal, Marinette has been training to be the Guardian since birth, Marinette is not impressed, New Kid AU, Plagg is highly amused
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-28 11:44:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20425436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leisey/pseuds/Leisey
Summary: “And you found the ring?” the girl asked.Chat Noir just held up his hand in way of reply and she let out a loud groan.“Are you the partner Plagg told me about?"She muttered something that sounded like a curse in Chinese and said, “Yes. You can call me Ladybug.”When Adrien went to Tibet for a photo shoot, he wasn't expecting to find a magical ring or a talking cat. Nor was he expecting to meet a Great Guardian, or fall in love with a girl who decided he needed constant supervision and followed him home.





	The Art of Changing

Adrien wasn’t entirely sure why he had to have a photo shoot in Tibet, but he was never one to question his Father’s decisions. Instead, he simply smiled for the cameras and then ran off to go exploring the moment the photographers said he could take a break.

For reasons that Adrien (again) didn’t question, the shoot was in the Tibetan countryside. They were surrounded by fields of lush green grass that turned into an equally lush-looking mountainous landscape. Temples dotted said mountains and the sight was so incredible that it took Adrien’s breath away.

It was in one such temple that he decided to go exploring after the photoshoot. It was an old, deserted building, but that by no means diminished its beauty. White walls so tall that Adrien had to crane his neck back to see the roof, ceilings painted red and gold, and a repeating motif in the art: small little floating creatures. A bug, a cat, a turtle, a fox, a bee, and…was that a…peacock? And maybe a purple butterfly-looking thing?

He continued roaming around the temple, not finding a single soul there.

“I wonder why it’s deserted?” he murmured to himself.

Nothing he came across answered his question, but he enjoyed exploring regardless. However, he was just considering going back to the photoshoot when he found a room covered in pictures of the little cat-like creature. All thoughts of leaving forgotten, he studied the art further. Along with the cat creature, there were varying pictures of people dressed in a cat-like costume and wielding a staff.

_Cool_, he thought as he took them all in. _They’re like superheroes._

But what did it all mean?

In the centre of the room was a pedestal, upon which sat a small, hexagonal box. Adrien approached it with a confused frown. What was a box just doing there when the rest of the temple was deserted? Was he allowed to touch it? He looked around. No one was there. The temple was empty. Surely he could pick up and look at the box? It’s not like he was going to break it or drop it or anything like that. What’s the worst that could happen? With a mental shrug, he lifted the box off the pedestal and opened it.

Only to promptly drop it when a green ball of light appeared out of it.

When the light faded, the little cat creature Adrien had seen in all the artwork was floating in the air in front of him and giving a huge yawn.

“Wow, awesome! Like the genie of the lamp!” Adrien marvelled at it, moving forward to get a closer look.

“French, huh?” the cat said in Adrien’s native tongue and he blinked at it in surprise. It could _talk_? “Haven’t had a French one in a while. That’s good. You can take me to Camembert sometime. As for the genie, yeah, I’ve met him. So he grants wishes, no need to make a cheese out of it. Plagg. Nice to meet you!”

Adrien paused to try and process that overload of information and the apparently called Plagg creature took that as his chance to float around and study the temple. “Yeesh, this place has seen better days. What’s the Old Man doing?”

His brain sufficiently rebooted, Adrien focused back on the little cat. “Is that a joke? Is someone going to jump out with cameras? My Father planned this, right? Wait, he couldn’t have. He doesn’t have a sense of humour.”

Plagg stopped his inspection of the temple room to turn back to Adrien. “Kid, do you have any idea what you’ve just done?”

Adrien gave a confused shake of his head. “No.”

Plagg swooped down to where Adrien dropped the box and gestured to it. “So you don’t know what this is?”

Adrien bent down to pick it up. Inside the box was a silver ring. “No,” he repeated.

“Oooh,” Plagg said, sounding highly amused. “This’ll be interesting.”

“What do you mean? What’s going on? What _are_ you?”

“Look, I’m a kwami. I grant powers. Yours is the power of destruction. Got it?”

Adrien shook his head. “Uh-uh.”

“Good,” Plagg replied, disregarding Adrien’s complete lack of understanding. “Now, I have a very important question to ask you.”

“What is it?”

“Do you have anything to eat? I’m starving.”

Adrien just looked at the kwami. “What?” he eventually asked. That was not what he was expecting the creature to say.

“I’ve been sleeping for ages. _Years_. I need food. I need _cheese_! You’re French, do you have any camembert?”

“…Why would I be carrying around cheese?”

“Ah well, you’ll learn to. Now, details! You can’t tell anyone I exist. Not a single person. Not your family, not your friends, no one. Got it? Good. Now, see that ring? Put it on and you can become a superhero.”

“_What_?”

Adrien stared at the ring. A superhero? Him? Sure, it was the thing anime and comics were made of and Adrien loved them, but really, _him_? A _superhero_?

“That’s right,” Plagg said. “The power of bad luck and destruction, all with the little ring. Cool, huh?”

It _did_ sound cool, but there was just one little problem. “But I’m always stuck at home. I’m not even allowed to go to school! What good is a superhero who’s imprisoned in his own house?”

“No good,” Plagg agreed. “That’s why it’s all going to change soon. If you’re willing to change, that is.”

Adrien could hear the persuasive tone in Plagg’s voice and could feel himself agreeing with it. _Change_. How long had he wanted change? To get out of the house and go somewhere other than photoshoots? To go to school, to make friends?

If putting on a ring was all it took to become a hero and help people. To get out of his suffocating house and see the world. To make friends. To _change_…then he didn’t really need to think about it at all.

He put the ring on his finger.

“Good,” Plagg said approvingly. “Now, your big superpower is called ‘Cataclysm.’ You shout it out and it infuses your ring hand with bad luck energy. It can destroy anything it touches, so you have to be careful. To transform, you have to say ‘_Transformez_ _moi_.’”

And in that one, shining moment, Adrien realised what was going on.

“I’m a _magical girl_,” he breathed out, delighted.

Plagg clearly didn’t understand him. “You’re a what?”

“A magical girl. You know, like _Sailor Moon_ or _Cardcaptor Sakura_? Not that Sakura had the whole ‘magical transformation’ thing, she just had different costumes. But she had the magic and the magical familiar and—"

“Kid, kid,” Plagg interrupted. “What’s your name?”

It was kind of a novel experience, not being recognised. “Adrien Agreste.”

“Okay, Adrien, I’m going to be honest with you. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Some of Adrien’s enthusiasm faded. “Oh, uh, it’s anime? Japanese cartoons? I watch them a lot. Sorry, I don’t get to talk about it much. Got a little excited there.”

“It’s fine. It sounds cool. How about you show me it later?”

An even better novel experience was someone actually offering to join in on one of Adrien’s interests. “Really?!”

“Yeah, sure, so long as you give me cheese to go with it.”

“Deal!”

“Okay, as I was saying, you’ll get a partner. The wielder of the Ladybug miraculous. But we’ll get to that later, to transform—"

“Right! Got it! Plagg, _transformez_ _moi_!”

“Wait! I haven’t finishing explaining!” Plagg cried as he was sucked into the ring on Adrien’s finger.

Green light flashed over him and Adrien performed the transformation sequence he’d practiced in his room numerous times when he got bored. Within moments, he found himself in a suit similar to the ones people were shown in on the temple walls, complete with a metal staff on his back. “Cool,” he said, looking himself over. “This is awe—"

_BOOM_!

A loud, explosion shook the temple. Dust fell from the ceiling and Adrien stumbled, nearly falling over.

“What the?” he said when he regained his balance.

_BOOM_!

Another explosion occurred and even more debris fell from the ceiling. Adrien looked up at it uneasily. Explosions, an old temple and a potentially caved in roof? It was time to get the hell out of there.

But wait! If he was a superhero, people might need his help!

_BOOM_!

Okay, get out of potentially collapsing room first, then go try and see if anyone needs help.

He ran from the room and towards the sound of the explosions. _This is probably a bad idea_, he thought as he skidded into a large room in the temple and found two people engaged in battle.

His first thought was _red. _Because, wow, that was a lot of red. There was a girl in a red suit like his, with black spots, like a ladybug. Her dark hair was in pigtails and she wore a mask in the same ladybug pattern. Out of all the weapons she could possibly have, she was wielding a yoyo.

_This must be the partner Plagg mentioned!_ he realised. Although he didn’t think he’d be meeting her so soon, if at all.

She was battling a man in a purple suit and mask. He was using a cane to attack the girl, but they both paused and looked at Adrien in surprise when he entered the room.

Uneasy under their stare, Adrien took out his staff and tried not to seem as nervous as he felt. “Uh, I don’t know what’s going on here,” he said. “But a cat just told me I’m a superhero and you, sir, look like a supervillain.”

“French?” the girl said in Adrien’s native tongue, seemingly surprised.

“No!” the man cried in the same language. “Give me your miraculous!”

“My what?”

“You activated the Cat miraculous!” the girl said.

(Thank goodness she could speak French!)

“The what?”

“Who are you?” she demanded.

“A—" He began to answer before stopping himself. He was a superhero now, right? He was supposed to have a superhero name. But what could it be? Plagg gave him the power and he looked like a little cat…The girl said something about him activating a Cat miraculous…his suit was black. “Uh, Chat Noir?” he eventually replied. “Yeah, Chat Noir!”

“And you found the ring?” the girl asked.

Chat Noir just held up his hand in way of reply and she let out a loud groan.

“Are you the partner Plagg told me about?"

She muttered something that sounded like a curse in Chinese and said, “Yes. You can call me Ladybug.”

Tired of being ignored, the man in the mask spoke up. “Give that ring to me!”

Chat traded a look with Ladybug. “Bad guy?”

“Bad guy,” she confirmed with a nod.

“Called it,” he said and turned back to the guy in the mask. “Uh, no, not giving it to you.”

“Hand it over!”

“_No_.”

“Surrender!”

“You mean you wish to surrender to me? Very well, I accept.”

With a scream of rage, the man leapt at Chat, brandishing his cane. Calling up all his fencing experience, Chat parried the blow with his staff. “Who is this guy?!” He called to Ladybug as he fought him off.

“I am Hawk Moth,” the man in question replied. “Give me your miraculous and I’ll grant you your heart’s desire! Ladybug will just use you for her own ends.”

Chat couldn’t help but think to his missing mother. What he wouldn’t give to see her again, but there was no way he was giving in to a supervillain.

Sarcastic clapping cut off the retort Chat was about to give and he turned to see Ladybug applauding their opponent. “Let’s not reverse the rolls, Hawk Moth,” she said. “_You’re_ the one who uses their miraculous for evil, and I will not rest until the butterfly miraculous and Nooroo are returned to the Great Guardian! Even if it takes the rest of my life, _I will defeat you_!”

Chat Noir was pretty sure he was in love.

Like, _whoa_.

Ladybug was awesome!

“You’ll never win,” Hawk Moth snarled, “and I will have your miraculous! The powers of creation and destruction will be mine!”

“You’ll never have the ultimate power!” Ladybug cried defiantly as she swung her yoyo at him.

Wait, creation and destruction? Ultimate power? He had a special destructive power! Putting his staff away and creating distance between himself and Hawk Moth, Chat lifted his hand and cried, “_Cataclysm_!”

Just like Plagg said, bad luck energy began bubbling in his hand.

He turned to his partner. “Apparently, I destroy whatever I touch.”

Eager to test the power out, he bent down to touch a piece of debris on the ground.

“No!” Ladybug shouted. “Don’t do that!”

“Cool,” he said as he watched the debris disintegrate. “It’s just you and me now. Time to rumble, Moth-Butt!”

“Chat Noir, wait!” Ladybug called out behind him.

Chat landed a hit on Hawk Moth, fully expecting the attack to work.

Nothing happened.

He tried again. Still nothing.

“Uh oh,” he said. “I guess I only get one shot to use my power.”

Hawk Moth smiled sinisterly. Chat only had a second to brace himself before he was hit and sent flying back towards Ladybug.

Huh. That didn’t hurt nearly as much as he was expecting it to. Thank you, magical power suit.

Chat picked himself up and sent a sheepish smile Ladybug’s way.

“Now you only have five minutes before you transform back,” she said. “Didn’t your kwami explain anything to you?”

“I guess I was a little excited about my new life.”

“Well, it’s up to me. _Lucky_ _Charm_!”

She threw her yoyo into the air and spewed out pink sparkles. From those sparkles fell a red and black spotted sling shot.

“Nice power!” Chat complimented.

“Thanks,” she replied. “I have the power to create things.”

With that, she began looking around the room. Chat wasn’t entirely sure what she was doing, but she suddenly said, “Ah-ha!” and grabbed a large rock from the ground. She then put it in the sling shot and aimed it towards the ceiling.

But before she could do anything else with it, another loud boom shook the temple, sending them stumbling.

“Whoa!” Chat said as he regained his footing. “Those booms weren’t from you two fighting?”

Ladybug shook her head. “No, that would be from the Great Guardian.”

“Who is that and what are they doing?!”

“The holder of the turtle miraculous and he’s destroying the temple,” was her nonchalant reply.

“_WHAT_?!”

Not bothering to answer what Chat Noir considered a particularly pertinent question, Ladybug pulled back on the slingshot and sent the rock flying towards the roof of temple.

Without even pausing to see if it struck its target, Ladybug took off towards the exit of the room, hauling Chat along with her. “Time to go!”

Chat heard the unmistakable sound of the roof caving in behind them and didn’t question her. He sprinted after Ladybug and didn’t stop until they were out of the temple and quite a way away from it.

He watched as it crumbled. “W-W-What was that?!” He spluttered.

Ladybug sighed. “That was a battle between miraculous wielders.”

“No not that! You just brought the temple down on Hawk Moth! Is he _dead_?! Did we just _kill_ someone?!”

Ladybug shook her head. “That wouldn’t have killed him. He’s alive, trust me. That just allowed us to get away unharmed.”

Chat took that in, nodding. Okay. Okay. That was good. Superhero and supervillain or not, he wasn’t sure how he’d handle killing someone. He moved onto his next point. “Then what the hell was that?!”

Ladybug looked confused at his question. “What the hell was what?”

“You just _destroyed a temple_! That must have been _hundreds_ of years old! All that art, history, cultural significance—it’s all gone! Look, I know you’re awesome. Like, wow, you’re crazy awesome, but you just destroyed it! While we were inside it, no less. All that history—_gone_!”

“Temples can be rebuilt and history can be preserved elsewhere, young man,” a new voice spoke up.

Chat turned to see an old man approaching them. He was wearing a red Hawaiian shirt and a green turtle-like creature that could only be a kwami was perched on his shoulder.

“Hey, I know you,” Chat said in realisation. “You’re that tour guide from the other day!”

The man nodded. “Indeed I was and I thank you for helping me up when I fell. Not many would do the same. I am the Great Guardian, but you may call me Master Fu.”

“I’m—uh—Chat Noir,” he replied.

“A fitting name, but you may drop your transformation. It is no longer needed.”

“But, Master—" Ladybug protested.

Fu held up a hand to placate her. “Trust between partners is more important right now than secret identities.”

“But Master,” Ladybug spoke up again, switching to Chinese. “He’s not ready for this and you suddenly want us to reveal ourselves? It’s supposed to remain a secret!”

Adrien was surprised at the change in language–Ladybug could speak French and Chinese?—but he felt a flare of pride when he could understand it easily. However, that pride was overwhelmed by hurt at Ladybug’s assessment of him. He might not be ready _now_, but he could learn, right?

“Um,” he said in Chinese as well. “I can understand that, you know?”

Ladybug froze and blushed at being caught out. “Uh, well…”

Fu chuckled and reverted back to French. “Well, it seems our Chat Noir is more talented than we thought. All the more reason to share your identities.”

“But—!” Ladybug tried again.

Fu simply looked at her and she reluctantly fell silent. “Very well,” she conceded.

The Guardian turned to Chat and gave him an encouraging smile. “You may release your transformation.”

Chat did as he was told and after a flash of green, he stood there as Adrien. He felt strangely nervous in front of them without the mask. Fu simply nodded at him, but Ladybug frowned. Adrien knew her expression well. It was the one people wore when they were trying to figure out where they knew him from.

What was he supposed to say in this situation? ‘Hi, I’m Adrien Agreste. My Dad’s a famous designer and I model for him sometimes.’ or, ‘Hi, my name’s Adrien and you’re really pretty and wow we just destroyed a temple.’ How about, ‘Hello, sorry, I’m home schooled and really awkward but that was awesome. I’m a superhero! What even?’

Gah, what was he _supposed to say_?! A childhood of solitude and anime didn’t prepare him for this! Well, it prepared him for the transformation sequence, but not sudden identity reveal!

Plagg saved Adrien from speaking by turning to Fu. “Hey, Old Man, Wayzz. How have you been?”

Fu bowed his head to the kwami. “It’s good to see you again, old friend.”

Wayzz waved to his cat miraculous counterpart. “Indeed. We are well, thank you, and you?”

“I still feel half asleep and I’m craving cheese, but I’m happy with the kid. You made a good choice.”

Adrien belatedly realised they were talking about him and happiness and pride stirred in his chest. Plagg liked him! He was a good choice!

Further conversation was halted as Fu, Wayzz and Plagg all looked to Ladybug expectantly. Adrien, realising what was about to happen, turned his attention from his internal happy dance—_Plagg liked him!_—to the girl they were focused on.

Ladybug sighed and let her transformation go in a wave of pink. The girl under the mask could be summed up in one word: adorable. With her dark hair in pigtails, her incredible blue eyes, the smattering of freckles on her face and her predominately pink outfit, she just _screamed_ adorable.

(Adrien then remembered that this was a girl who went toe to toe with a supervillain and brought down a temple on him, and promptly decided to keep that adorable observation to himself.)

“Good, good,” Fu said approvingly. “You may introduce yourselves.”

Not wanting there to be an awkward silence between them, Adrien rushed to hold his hand out to her. “I’m Adrien,” he said. “Nice to meet you.”

After a small hesitation, she took his hand. “Marinette Dupain-Cheng. It’s nice to meet you too.” She gestured to the bug like kwami that was now perched on her shoulder. “This is Tikki.”

“Hello, Adrien!” Tikki said brightly. “It’s a pleasure.”

“Likewise,” he smiled at the kwami before turning back to Marinette. “Dupain? That sounds–”

“French? Yes, my Father is French and my Mother is Chinese.”

Then what in the world was she doing in Tibet?

Before he could voice that question, Fu interjected with, “I’m afraid, Monsieur Agreste, you’ve stumbled across something rather important.”

Marinette froze. “Wait, Agreste?” She peered at him. “I thought I already knew you from somewhere. You’re _Adrien Agreste_? Son of Gabriel Agreste?”

He awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh, that’s me.”

She looked shocked and sceptical at the same time. “Chat Noir is the son of my favourite designer. Sure, why not?”

Marinette was into fashion? “Well,” he began, but Fu held up a hand to stall him.

“Please,” the Grand Guardian said. “There is much to cover and not a lot of time to do so.”

Marinette and Adrien fell silent.

“Good,” Fu continued. “Now, as I was saying, Monsieur Agreste, you’ve stumbled across the world of the miraculous and it is as dangerous as it is awe inspiring. Not only that, but you’ve activated one of the two most powerful miraculouses in existence.”

“That’s right, kid,” Plagg said boastfully. “The cat miraculous is the best there is!”

“Aside from the Ladybug miraculous,” Tikki put in with a pointed look to the kwami of bad luck.

Fu went on to explain Hawk Moth and his desire to combine the powers of the Ladybug and Cat miraculous. How Marinette had been chosen from a young age to wield hers and how they had been waiting for the right person for Plagg.

“Hawk Moth is not someone who we can defeat at our current strength,” Fu said. “It will take time and that is something we do not currently have. You need to return to Paris, Adrien, and we need to plan.”

“So what do we do?” Adrien asked.

“Now, you will return to your photoshoot and Marinette and I will do as I’ve said: plan.”

Adrien gaped at him. “_What_?! You just want me to go back home like nothing happened?! Like I didn’t find a magical cat or was told I’m a superhero?!”

Fu nodded gravely. “Indeed we do.”

“But that’s—that’s—”

_Ridiculous_, Adrien wanted to say. This was the most incredible thing that had ever happened to him and he had to pretend like it never did? He had to go back to Paris and that big, empty house and act like everything was normal?

“You can’t tell anyone about us or the miraculous,” Marinette said. “It has to remain a secret.”

Keeping secrets was superhero 101. He knew not to go blabbing about it. Plus, Plagg had already told him not to say anything. “I know,” he replied, “I won’t. I promise.”

(Besides, who would he tell? Nathalie? The Gorilla? Chloé? Yeah, right.)

“I know you have questions,” Master Fu said, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder, “but don’t worry. They’ll be answered in time. This is not the end, the miraculous have need of you yet.”

And that was how Adrien became a superhero and was benched from it all in the span of around half an hour.

* * *

In the weeks that followed his time in Tibet, a lot changed for Adrien.

Okay, so it didn’t change in the fact that he was suddenly able to become Chat Noir and fight crime, but it still changed. Plagg followed him home from Tibet and was happy to let him transform to go running over rooftops, but the kwami was adamant that there would be no taking on bad guys until he got an okay from Master Fu. And considering Adrien had heard nothing from the Great Guardian after his trip to Tibet, he wasn’t expecting to be able to fight crime anytime soon.

He thought a lot about Marinette and how awesome and pretty and talented she was. (_It’s not mooning, Plagg, shut up_.)

He revelled in the freedom he got from racing over Parisian rooftops and he tried to extend that freedom by enrolling into school. It only took him running away a few times to do so before his Father finally relented and let him attend Collège Françoise Dupont.

Chloé was happy to see him there, but he was shown a side of his childhood friend that wasn’t quite as nice as the Chloé he remembered. Still, he wasn’t going to give up her friendship. She was his friend; rough, spoiled edges and all.

He’d become fast friends with a guy called Nino. Someone who decided Adrien “needed more friends than just Chloé, jeez dude, wow,” and who was quickly becoming the best friend he had ever had.

And then there was Alya, who was a kind and passionate new student at the school like him. She was just as enthusiastic about superheroes as he was and was always willing to talk comics and superhero theories with him.

Adrien’s life had changed for the better. He had a new school, new friends, a magic ring and an equally magic floating cat that had become someone whose advice and company Adrien had come to rely on (unfortunate cheese addiction notwithstanding.)

However, he didn’t realise that his life was going to change once again. Instead, he could only gawk in surprise as Miss Bustier escorted a new student into their class and told her to introduce herself.

“Hello,” the student said in flawless French. “My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. It’s nice to meet you all.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone!
> 
> I was going through my wips folder and stumbled across this. I think past-me was waiting until I had more planned and written before posting it and then never got around to doing more. So, I've decided to post it instead of letting it just sit there. I don't know when I'll post more, but what's another wip on my ao3 account? lmao
> 
> Please let me know what you thought in the comments!
> 
> Much love,
> 
> Leisey.


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